Aldermaston may have been inhabited as early as 1690 BCE; a number of postholes and remains of cereal grains have been found in the area. Written history of the village is traced back at least as far as the 9th century CE. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles show that the Ealdorman of Berkshire had his country estate in the village. The manor of Aldermaston was established by the early 11th century, when the village was given to the Achard family by Henry I; the manor is documented in the Domesday survey. The village church was established in the 13th century, and some of the original Norman architecture remains in the building's structure.
The last resident Lord of the Manor, Charles Keyser, died in 1929. The manor estate has been subsequently occupied by Associated Electrical Industries, the XIX Tactical Air Command, the Women's Land Army, Collier Macmillan Schools, Blue Circle Industries, and the Compass Group, who ran it as a hotel and corporate venue. It was bought by the Praxis Group in 2013 for £4.7 million and is now subject to plans for restoration that include 227 new homes in order to finance the restoration of the manor house and grounds.

History

Evidence suggests that Aldermaston was inhabited in the 12th century CE, possibly extending back to 1690 BCE.[3]Radiocarbon dating on postholes and pits in the area show activity from 1690 to 1390, 1319 to 1214, and 977 to 899 BCE. Wheat and barley grains have been found in these excavations. Tests show that most of the barley was dehulled, but that absence of such debris may mean that the cereal was brought in from other areas.[3]

The history of the Lords of the Manor of Aldermaston Court can be traced to Achard D'Aldermaston, who was born in 1036.[7] Six families have had lordship of the Aldermaston estate. In the 11th century, Henry I gave Aldermaston to Robert Achard (or Hachard[8]) of Sparsholt.[9][10] In the mid-12th century, the Achard family founded the church of St Mary the Virgin.[11] In 1292, Edward I granted the right for the lord of the manor to hold a market in the village. Another charter was granted by Henry IV, with evidence that the market existed until approximately 1900.[4] The Achards also established an annual fair to observe the feast of St. Thomas the Martyr on 7 July.[4]

The 17th-century Aldermaston House, showing the building's proximity to the parish church

Victorian era

On Ralph's death a second-cousin of dramatist William Congreve inherited the manor.[15] The Congreve Family owned the estate at the time of the 1830 Swing Riots. The rioters marched across Aldermaston, wrecking twenty-three agricultural machines. Workers were so frightened by the riots that they left their machinery in the open in an attempt to limit additional damage.[16] Around the same time, the River Kennet (along the north side of the estate) was made navigable between Reading and Newbury.[17]

In 1843, the manor house was destroyed by fire, news of which was carried in The Illustrated London News.[11] The estate passed into the Court of Chancery and was purchased by Daniel Higford Davall Burr. In 1848, Burr commissioned the building of a neoclassical mansion to the south west of the original building. Burr saved the 17th-century manor's wooden staircase, though all that remains of the building is a staircase to the cellar (which is now home to a colony of bats).[11] By 1851 the new building was complete, costing £20,000 and having a Tudor-like appearance.[18] Burr held the estate until his death 50 years later, when was inherited by his son, who sold it in 1893.

The buyer was wealthy stockbrokerCharles Edward Keyser, who was preoccupied with the idea of keeping the village unchanged—or, as he described it, "unspoilt".[19] He forbade advertisements, opposed all modernisation and refused to allow any expansion by the building of houses. He did, however, commission the building of a parish hall in 1897 and provided the village with a water supply,[20] and the water fountain on the small village green was installed to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. Keyser oversaw the restoration of the village almshouses in 1906 and 1924, and defrayed the cost of a memorial oak tablet in memory of those killed in World War I. Of the 100 men from the village who served in the war, 22 were killed (the highest percentage of town population in the country). The tablet bears the name of each man lost in action.[21]

During Keyser's lordship, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales listed Adminston as a possible name for the village.[15] On his death in 1929, his wife, Mary, continued to occupy the house until she died in 1938. The estate was auctioned off in September 1938, and many lots were purchased by their occupiers. The manor house was bought by Associated Electrical Industries (AEI) for £16,000.[22] One of the houses in the village is recorded as having fetched £1,375.[23] As AEI's chairman, Felix Pole became the de jure Lord of the Manor upon their purchase of Aldermaston Court.[24]

In 1953, Pole stepped down as Lord of the Manor and was succeeded by AEI's senior representative, Thomas Allibone. Allibone held the position for 32 years, until Blue Circle Industries acquired the estate in 1985.[28] Allibone was succeeded by Tony Jackson, and the current Lord of the Manor is Andy Hall.[29] Blue Circle could not gain planning permission in the grounds of the court, so the MERLIN reactor was demolished to make way for Portland House. With a full redevelopment of Aldermaston Manor, the £14 million office development became Blue Circle's international headquarters and the complex was opened by Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester.[23]

Government

Historically, Aldermaston was a hundred, though for a period it was within the Theale hundred.[34] By the 19th century, the hundreds had been superseded by other sub-divisions. From then on, Aldermaston was, at times, part of the BradfieldPoor Law Union and Sanitary District, and the registration sub-districts of Mortimer (late 19th century) and Bucklebury (early 20th century).[34] It was at all times an ecclesiastical parish and acquired civil parish status in the 1890s.[34]

Aldermaston is under the catchment of Thames Valley Police and is covered by the Brimpton Neighbourhood Policing Team.[39] In a meeting with Aldermaston Parish Council, the police reported that 57 criminal offences were reported to have taken place in the parish between 2009 and 2010.[40] Of this, the majority was theft from non-dwelling properties. Vehicle crime had dropped by 57% on the previous year but violent crime had risen from four to six incidents. Five of these crimes were reported to be domestic violence. There have been no reported cases of robbery in Aldermaston since 2006.[40]

Geography

The Loosey with the fountain (left) and well (to the right of the oak tree) visible

At the southern end of The Street is a small triangular village green called The Loosey—supposedly named after a "Lucy" who planted the oak tree which stands on the green.[42] The Loosey is the site of a Roman well, discovered in 1940 by a cow that almost fell down it.[19] The Loosey was previously home to the village maypole (which was often climbed by Daniel Burr's monkey) and a drinking fountain erected by Charles Keyser to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria.[19]

Sections of Grim's Bank are in the parish. Part of the earthwork in the AWE complex survives at a height of 3.3 metres (11ft) and with a ditch 0.9 metres (3.0ft) deep.[44]

Geology

The landscape of Aldermaston is influenced by Paices Hill and Rag Hill, which are extremities of the chalk formation the North Wessex Downs as part of the Thames Basin Heaths.[45][46] The topography of the land in the parish generally slopes northward to the River Kennet.[43]

Flooding

The flood grilles on Church Road (the rebuilt section of the wall is lighter than the older sections)

The quite flat low clay of Aldermaston's north has with exceptional rainfall led to flooding certain populous streets on three occasions — 1971, 1989, and 2007.[47][48] The flood in 1971 caused by torrential rain was exacerbated by the non-porous tarmac and buildings of the Atomic Weapons Establishment which managed for the first time to overwhelm its balancing ponds.[48] This happened again in July 1989, when an average of 6 inches (150mm) of rain was deposited across the parish in two hours; water rose 5 feet (1.5m) above the ponds and broke through a brick wall. The destroyed wall was rebuilt with 17 grilles to avoid another build-up of water.[49] A donation of £10,000 was given to the village by Blue Circle.[50]

In July 2007, torrential rain flooded some of the traditional village centre and primary school.[51] The storm coincided with the annual Glade music festival and jeopardised the event.[52] The festival gates were temporarily closed while organisers assessed the flooding, which submerged one of the stages.[53] The festival's car park was incapacitated, with thousands of revellers stranded in the village and surrounding lanes.[54]

The floods also hit the Church of England primary school, with the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service evacuating pupils and staff from the school in life rafts.[27][55] The evacuation used four rafts, rescuing pupils and teachers from the school through windows.[56] The 165 people (140 pupils and 25 members of staff) were taken uphill to the parish hall, where blankets and sleeping bags had been provided.[51]

Ian Henderson, a police constable at Thames Valley Police stated that the emergency services were "really stretched because of what happened over the county and the Glade event", that "the [A340] junction was two or three-foot under water", and predicted that "a lot of householders [would be] homeless."[51]

Demography

The 1831 census showed that 68% of the employed population of Aldermaston were working class or "labourers and servants".[57] 20% were middle class ("middling sorts"), 10% were upper class ("employers and professionals") and 2% were unclassified.[57]

In 1887 the population of the parish was 528.[58] By 1896, the population had grown to 585.[15] The population fluctuated steadily around 550 until the 1950s and 1960s, when a population explosion resulted in the 1961 UK census reporting 2,186 residents in the parish.[59] This coincides with the opening of the Atomic Weapons Establishment in the early 1950s, and the majority of this figure counts residents in the parts of Tadley within the parish of Aldermaston[60]—between 1901 and 1961, 368 houses were built in the parish.[61]

Population distribution in the parish (2005):[62] Aldermaston Village Aldermaston Wharf Falcon Fields Ravenswing/Pinelands Raghill and other outlying areas

A number of parish border changes occurred in the first half of the 20th century, including the net loss of 307 acres (124ha) to Beenham and Woolhampton on 1 April 1934 alone.[63] By 2001, the parish population had reduced to 927.[36]

The 2001 United Kingdom Census identified that 99.3% of householders in the parish as white.[64] In 2005 30% of parish residents lived in the village.[65] Of the 70% outside the village, 30% lived at Aldermaston Wharf, 20% in the local mobile home parks, 10% in the Falcon Fields development and 10% in "other outlying areas".[62] Falcon Fields is a housing development on the southern border of the parish, completed in the early 2000s. Ravenswing and Pinelands are mobile home parks near the Hampshire border.[66][67] Raghill is an industrial area to the east of the parish, which has some light residential developments.

The average age of residents in the parish is approximately 50 with 31.5% of residents in the 45–64 age group.[64] The average age of residents of Aldermaston Wharf is 30.7, and in the mobile home parks the average age is 53.9.[62] Of these, 53.3% were female.[62] This is in contrast with the 2001 census data, which showed that 49.8% were female.[64]

In 2005, 3% of the parish population were unemployed and 25% were retired.[62] The retirement figure increased in the Pinelands and Ravenswing areas, with a statistic of 42%.[62] Most residents' places of work are in surrounding towns, with their location in the parish largely dictating where to look for work. The 2005 survey identified that residents in the south of the parish (Falcon Fields and Ravenswing/Pinelands) travel towards Tadley and Basingstoke whereas those further north in the parish tend to find work in Reading, Newbury and London.[68]

2011 Published Statistics: Population, home ownership and extracts from Physical Environment, surveyed in 2005[1]

Output area

Homes owned outright

Owned with a loan

Socially rented

Privately rented

Other

km² roads

km² water

km² domestic gardens

Usual residents

km²

Civil parish

234

135

28

46

9

0.2

0.4

0.3

1,015

13.4

Economy

Historically, the main source of industry in Aldermaston has been agriculture. According to the 1831 census, approximately 66% of working men (aged 20 and over) were employed in some form of agriculture.[70] The next highest industry by workers was "retail and handicrafts", which employed approximately 20%.[70] Employment categories in the 1881 census were more discreet; just 20% of working men identified their employment as agriculture. 30% however, were listed as "general or unspecified commodities".[70] In this census, women's employment was also documented. Of the 137 working women in the parish, 40 (slightly fewer than 30%) worked in domestic services, whereas 82 (approximately 60%) were of an unknown occupation.[70]

Agriculture

In about 1797[71] a schoolmaster living in the village cultivated the Williams pear. The schoolmaster (either Mr Wheeler[71] or his successor, John Stair[72]) was the original cultivator, but the pear (a cultivar of the European Pear) was named after Richard Williams of Turnham Green, who grew several grafts of the original tree.[71] On 5 December 1956, a plaque commemorating the tree was unveiled on the wall of the village school.[71]

Locally-farmed wheat was milled at Aldermaston Mill until the 1920s.[73] In existence at the time of the Domesday survey, the mill was previously called the "Kingsmill", and at one time supplied flour to Huntley & Palmers in Reading.[74] Now known as The Old Mill, it was owned by Wasing's Mount family throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. William Mount let the mill to Francis Webb (1797–1811), Mr Sherwood (1811–1820), Mr King (1820–1824), Mr Waldren (1824–1828), Mr Mathews (1828–1848), and William Gilchrist (1848–1856).[75] Gilchrist (Mathews' business partner) bought the mill from Mount in 1856 using money inherited from his brother's death the previous year.[76] Owning it outright for approximately a year, he drowned in the River Kennet in 1857 after visiting the Angel public house in Woolhampton.[76] Joseph Crockett purchased the mill in an auction the same year, before it was acquired by a Richard Sisling of Godalming in 1858. In approximately 1860, the mill was purchased by the Kersley family. Between then and 1885, it was operated by Anthony Kersley, a miller and maltster who employed "six men and a boy, a carter, several domestic servants and a governess".[76] Kersley's son, also named Anthony, ran the mill until 1895. That year, Walter Parson bought the mill and operated it until approximately 1897. Charles Keyser subsequently oversaw restoration on the mill building which "had been untenanted for upwards of three years". He let the mill out to a Mr Iremonger from 1901. Iremonger used the mill until the late 1920s, shortly before Keyser's death.[76] After Keyser had died and the Aldermaston estate had been divided and sold, his widow, Mary, approached Evelyn Arlott to run the mill as a tea room and guesthouse. The Arlott family purchased the mill in approximately 1939, after the death of Mary Keyser.[77]

In 1939, there were seven farms on the Aldermaston estate —Forsters Farm, Village Farm, Church Farm, Upper Church Farm, Raghill Farm, Park Farm, and Soke Farm. These accounted for approximately 75% of the estate's land.[78] Aside from these, there were six smallholdings within the parish but outside the land owned by the court. These were Springhill Farm, Court Farm, Strawberry Farm, Circus Farm, Ravenswing Farm, and Frouds Farm.[78]

Of these, Church Farm and Forster's Farm remain in operation.[79] Upper Church Farm was originally known as Harry's Farm, after a William Harry who died in 1544.[80]

Pubs and brewing

The local pub is named The Hind's Head in honour of the Forster family crest. Built in the 17th century and originally operating as a coaching inn,[81] the establishment was named The Pack Horse during the De La Mare and Forster lordships and The Congreve Arms throughout the Congreves' ownership.[82][83]

The Hind's Head Inn

The building has a large black and gold clock set into the gable, and a small bellturret upon which is a gilt fox-shaped weather vane.[81] The bell was intended to be rung as an air-raid siren during the Second World War.[84] In the early 19th century the pub's signboard carried the arms of the Congreve family, as well as branding for a company named "Adams". In the British Parliamentary Papers of 1817, the Committee on the State of the Police in the Metropolis reported evidence of a John Adams—a Reading-based distiller and hop merchant—who competed for business against Simonds' Brewery.[85] By 1850, the pub brewed beer on-site; a brewery was built as an out-building behind the main pub building. John Knight produced beer at the pub for 40 years, selling it for 2d. The brewery building is still in existence, with the wooden louvres still operational.[84] The building is now the pub's kitchen. In the 1970s, the pub was owned by Whitbread.[84][86] In the mid-1990s the pub was taken over by Gales Brewery (having previously been a free house), later becoming tied to Fuller's Brewery on their acquisition of Gales in 2006.[87][88] In the 1970s, the pub was home to the Kennet Folk Club.[84]

The pub has its own gaol-house, the lock-up, at the rear. Built out of red brick, the small single-storey building has a shallow domed roof. The inside of the lock-up measures approximately 7.5 feet (2.3m) by 6 feet (1.8m), and is enclosed by a studded door with a grille.[89] It was last used in 1865 and its drunk inhabitant burnt himself to death trying to keep warm.[23][82] The lock-up was designated as a Grade II listed building in April 1967.[90] On 11 September 2010 the lock-up was opened to the public as part of the Heritage Open Days scheme.[89]

Another pub in the parish, The Butt Inn, is located approximately 1.25 miles (2.01km) north-east of the village.[91] The pub is named after the archery butts that were located in the fields opposite the pub.[92] The Falcon Inn was on the southern border of the parish. The pub, which closed in 2009, was demolished in 2011 to improve traffic flow to AWE.[93] In 2013, the adjacent petrol station was rebuilt, extending onto the pub site.

Cricket bats

Old Village Farm (on Fishermans Lane) is now the location of a wood yard, used since the 1930s to prepare local willow for the production of cricket bats.[96] The trees are grown at Harbour Hill Copse,[97] where 70 trees are felled annually for this purpose. There are approximately 1000 trees growing at any given time.[98] The workers at the yard cut the wood into approximate bat shapes, then cure the wood in a kiln. The clefts of wood are then shipped to India where the final manufacturing can be undertaken under moisture-controlled conditions.[97]

The yard would take on three up-coming cricketers for the winter, in the hope that the hard work would "toughen them up" to get them picked for the England cricket team. One year the yard had help from Frank Tyson, Alan Moss, and Peter Loader. The following year they hosted three Davids—David Kaufman, David Spragbury, and David Gibson.[99]

The wood yard was featured on A Question of Sport, when cricketer Graham Gooch took part in the programme's "Mystery Guest" round.[100] Gooch endorsed the bats made from Aldermaston willow, which were sold by Surridge. When he scored 333 runs against India at Lord's in the 1990 test season, the Turbo 333 bat, made from Aldermaston wood, was launched in his honour.[101]

In the 1960s, Blue Peter aired a short documentary on the cricket bat production entitled "The Life of a Cricket Bat". It was presented by Christopher Trace.[99]

Atomic Weapons Establishment

The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), for which Aldermaston has become known,[106] is less than 1 mile (1.6km) south of the village. The establishment is where the UK designs and manufactures Trident missiles, and where decommissioned and redundant nuclear weapons are dismantled.[106] In April 1958, the first Aldermaston March was held.[107] The march saw around 3,000 protesters march from London to Aldermaston over four days, with a total attendance of 12,000 at the establishment's gates.[107] The 50th anniversary of the event was marked on 24 March 2008 with the "Bomb Stops Here" protest, attended by Vivienne Westwood and CND president Walter Wolfgang.[108][109] The 2008 demonstration was the biggest protest staged by CND in ten years.[110]
Until 2005, AWE discharged "pre-treated waste water"[111] into the River Thames at Pangbourne via an 11.8 miles (19.0km) pipeline which runs under roads and fields within the parish.[112] A water processing facility was installed on-site in 2006, though the Pangbourne Pipeline remains in situ.[111]

Britain's first roadside petrol filling station was opened by The AA on the Bath Road near Aldermaston on 2 March 1919.[116][117][118] The following year, one villager requested that a pump be installed by his house. "Chuffer" Ford, who lived in The Forge with his wife Olive,[119] was told by Keyser that it must be "behind a wall and recessed".[120] A hole was cut in the brick wall beside Ford's yard to house the Shell-branded pump.[119] The location of this pump is marked by a square hole in the present wall. Ford's business offered other motoring services, with signage reading "vacuum, oil, and cycles".[121]

There are two business parks in the parish—Calleva Business Park (on the Berkshire/Hampshire border)[124] and Youngs Industrial Estate (on Paices Hill).[125] The latter opened in the early 1980s, and is the location of Paices Wood Country Parkland, a wildlife project sponsored by English Nature.[126]

In 2007 Aldermaston won the Business Category Award in the regional final of the Calor Village of the Year competition.[127] The judges stated that the village "has a very successful business community" and that "local businesses are well-supported by villagers and in return these businesses support village activities".[128] In addition to the business award, the village was announced as the Overall Winner of the Calor "Berkshire Village of the Year" competition in 2006, as well as category winners in the "Building Community Life", "Business", "Young People" and "ICT" categories.[129][130]

Architecture

The majority of houses in the village were built between the 17th and late 19th centuries, including examples of Victorian Gothic architecture.[81] Only one house has been built on the village's main street since the early 20th century.[131] The parish hall, built in 1897, is predominantly flint and brick.[132]

Culture

Since the early 1800s, Aldermaston has held a candle auction every three years. The open auction starts with a horseshoe nail driven through a tallow candle an inch below the wick and lit in the parish hall.[141] The lot is the lease of Church Acre,[16] a plot of 2 acres (0.81ha) granted to the church in 1815 after the Inclosures Act.[81][142] The proceedings are overseen by the vicar and churchwardens, who drink rum punch throughout the auction. Traditionally, the churchwardens smoked clay pipes during the event.[81][141]

The parish hall often holds other events, such as plays produced by the village's own amateur dramatics society. The society, known as The Aldermaston Players, have staged fundraising events in the village 1966.[143] In 1976, the parish hall hosted an episode of the BBC's Any Questions?.[144]

The village, along with the neighbouring parish of Wasing, holds an annual produce show at The Old Mill.[145] The show, which was previously held behind the Hind's Head pub,[146] hosts produce competitions in approximately 100 classes.[145] In the 1990s, a team of gardeners formed from the produce show entered the Chelsea Flower Show. They won a silver gilt in the Best Courtyard Garden Award in two consecutive years, for gardens named "Calma" and "Time Lords".[147]

Aldermaston was mentioned in Plum Pie (1966) by P. G. Wodehouse—"Every now and then we march from Aldermaston, protesting like a ton of bricks... And then we sit a good deal."[118]
This was a reference to the demonstrations of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (the Aldermaston Marches) which took the form of marches from Aldermaston to London (apart from in 1958, when the march went from London to Aldermaston). This was an annual march from 1958 to 1963.[151]
Aldermaston was the original location of The Glade Festival. The 2007 event was jeopardised by torrential rains and flooding but cautiously went ahead.[53] In 2009, the festival moved from the area[152] and was held near Winchester.[53] Since 2006, the village has held a blues festival known as "Blues on the Meadow".[153]

The parish of Aldermaston forms a group with the local parishes of Wasing and Brimpton. The three share a monthly Parish Magazine featuring stories from churches, organisations, schools, businesses and various miscellany.[154]

Sport

Aldermaston has a number of sports teams. The village cricket team, Aldermaston Village CC, play at nearby Wasing Park.[172] The club, which first played in 1786 as "The Gentlemen of Aldermaston", originally played at a pitch at Aldermaston Court.[173] The ground was lost when the airfield was built. Sir William Mount, 2nd Baronet, the grandfather of British Prime MinisterDavid Cameron, allowed a cricket pitch to be established on a portion of his Wasing estate.[174] The original football club played next to the cricket pitch. The club's strip was sponsored by Mr. George L Heighton, the proprietor of the village shop.[175]

Aldermaston Rugby Club and A.F.C. Aldermaston both play their home games at the Recreational Society at AWE.[176] Tadley RFC is in the parish,[177] about 1.5 miles (2.4km) from the village.

Cunliffe, B W (2005), Iron Age Communities in Britain: An Account of England, Scotland and Wales from the Seventh Century BC Until the Roman conquest, Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge, ISBN0-415-34779-3